Mat-Su Central named Distinguished School by Apple

On one of our many icy nights this fall, the principal and staff of Mat-Su Central School traveled to the district office in Palmer to receive an award in front of the school district’s board of education.

This award was the product of a five-year re-imagining of the Valley’s longstanding public home-school program. Thanks to critical mass created by the visionary leadership of our families, principal and staff, Mat-Su Central has undergone a quiet revolution. Technology has changed the home-school world, allowing students to learn everywhere and explore their curiosity while developing 21st century skills.

The families and staff of Mat-Su Central have recognized and capitalized on this, paving the way for the school to receive the Apple Distinguished School Award, an award that Apple gives to fewer than 250 schools. This award is designed to recognize schools successful in deploying individualized technology and creating real gains with its students.

In order to receive the award, a school must first be nominated by Apple staff. Upon receiving a nomination, it becomes the school’s responsibility to put together a short e-book as an application. At Mat-Su Central, that meant a team of teachers working on weekends and evenings to put together short book describing the nature of the school, methods of technology integration, plans for staff training, examples of student use and more. I’d like to take a moment to share some excerpts of this application for two reasons:

1. To recognize those teachers who put so much heart and energy into the application and explain some pieces of our program.

2. Because I am so proud of our staff, families and community!

At Mat-Su Central, each student has an Individualized Learning Plan. This is a student’s academic roadmap and class schedule for the year, and is individually tailored to each of our program’s 1,600 students. Here’s a snippet of our application’s section on “ILPs and Student Learning.”

“Opportunities for students to explore their questions and interests are a driving force for learning. At MSC, students become active participants instead of passive learners, creating a purposeful, living laboratory that operates in a caring and supportive environment. MSC recognizes each student’s strengths and weaknesses and integrates their personal interests into their Individualized Learning Plan. Students actively participate in their own ILP by helping to select courses and curriculum that best meet their needs and interests. Students build a schedule consisting of traditional core classes and electives ranging from archery to computer programming.”

Learning is a lifelong process, especially when it comes to technology. The speed at which our devices change is remarkable and requires a commitment to constant learning and professional development. Here’s an excerpt from our application on professional development at Mat-Su Central and how we build professional development into our routines.

“One such method of continued staff development has been the integration of ‘Tech Tips’ into biweekly staff meetings. ‘Tech Tips’ is a five- to seven-minute portion of the meeting devoted to newest trends in applications and ‘pro tips’ for Macs and iPads. This is a time for staff to share and learn new ways to use technology. Tech Tips is reinforced by online tools available to faculty outside of the school day. A YouTube channel with screencasts of the biweekly topics, a Moodle page dedicated to tech tips, and a weekly newsletter reviewing and polling future topics provide the backbone for continued technology support.”

Lastly, in a recent renovation, the school itself was designed from the ground up to provide flexible work environments for faculty, students and families. The purpose of these rooms is to provide an environment in which students can explore their own curiosity, as well as collaborate with students and staff.

“MSC’s technology infrastructure was purposefully designed to meet the needs of our stakeholders. MSC provides free, filtered Wi-Fi to all parents and students. Likewise, stakeholders and visiting professionals are also able to access presentation tools such as wireless projectors and Apple TV network. Each public meeting room is outfitted with an Apple TV so that, when working together on projects using Mac or iOS devices, collaboration can be shared via large and visible workspaces in any area of the building. This reduces the dependency on any given room, encourages the use of the tools at hand and creates a less stressful and free-moving professional environment.”

These excerpts are just a brief sample of a larger application showcasing the success of a strong collaboration between our families, principal and staff. I encourage you to download and enjoy the e-book as a demonstration of strong community school partnerships, as well as a team of educators dedicated to integrating technology, personalizing education and trying to do what’s best for kids.

Download the e-book at bit.ly/1iJIaK3, or use the QR code accompanying this column.

Jeffrey D. Blackburn is program coordinator for math and technology at Mat-Su Central.